Accused SEAL killer was Marine at Camp Lejeune

A local veteran said he is shocked at the news that a former Camp Lejeune Marine corporal who served with him is accused of killing a Navy SEAL and best-selling author at a Texas shooting range over the weekend.

A local veteran said he is shocked at the news that a former Camp Lejeune Marine corporal who served with him is accused of killing a Navy SEAL and best-selling author at a Texas shooting range over the weekend.

Eddie Ray Routh, 25, was arraigned Sunday on two counts of murder in the deaths of Chris Kyle, 38, and Chad Littlefield, 35. Both decedents were married with children.

Routh served in the Corps from 2006 to 2010. He was deployed to Iraq in 2007 and Haiti in 2010. He received 10 medals, including recognition for good conduct and humanitarian service, according to military officials.

Routh is believed to be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, according to law enforcement officials in Texas.

Former Marine and Jacksonville resident Marc Brownlee served with Routh in 2009. Brownlee told The Daily News he was still trying to wrap his head around the situation so he didn’t want to say too much about Routh.

“He was a good Marine, always upbeat, which is why it’s just ... sad, strange, hard to even describe it really,” Brownlee said.

The two haven’t spoken since 2009 when Routh was detaching from their unit and Brownlee was leaving the Corps.

“He was never in any trouble while I was there,” Brownlee said of Routh.

Travis Cox, the director of a nonprofit Kyle helped found, told The Associated Press on Sunday that Kyle and Littlefield had taken Routh to a gun range about 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth to try to help him. Authorities described Routh as being unemployed and suffering from mental illness.

The three men went to the shooting range at around 3 p.m. and a lodge employee found Kyle and Littlefield’s bodies at 5 p.m.

Authorities believe Routh turned a semi-automatic handgun on Kyle and Littlefield. Authorities would not say how many times the two men were shot or where they were hit.

Routh left the shooting range in Kyle’s pickup truck, confessing to his sister about the shootings. He was later arrested at his home in a suburb of Dallas. Investigators said Routh had not made any statement as to motive. He is being held on a $3 million bond.

Kyle’s best-selling book, “American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History,” detailed his 150-plus kills of insurgents from 1999 to 2009. Kyle, who deployed to Iraq four times, said in his book that Iraqi insurgents had put a bounty on his head.

Lt. Cmdr. Rorke Denver, who served with Kyle on SEAL Team 3 in Iraq in 2006, called Kyle a champion of the modern battlefield. Denver wasn’t surprised that Kyle apparently used a shooting range to help someone with PTSD.

“For us, for warriors, that’s a skill set that has become very familiar, very comfortable for us,” Dever said. “So I actually see it as kind of a perfect use of Chris’ unique skill set and expertise of which he has very few peers.”

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